Cognitive and emotional demands of black humour processing: the role of intelligence, aggressiveness and mood.

Humour processing is a complex information-processing task that is dependent on cognitive and emotional aspects which presumably influence frame-shifting and conceptual blending, mental operations that underlie humour processing. The aim of the current study was to find distinctive groups of subjects with respect to black humour processing, intellectual capacities, mood disturbance and aggressiveness. A total of 156 adults rated black humour cartoons and conducted measurements of verbal and nonverbal intelligence, mood disturbance and aggressiveness.

Magic and Misdirection: The Influence of Social Cues on the Allocation of Visual Attention While Watching a Cups-and-Balls Routine.

In recent years, a body of research that regards the scientific study of magic performances as a promising method of investigating psychological phenomena in an ecologically valid setting has emerged. Seemingly contradictory findings concerning the ability of social cues to strengthen a magic trick's effectiveness have been published. In this experiment, an effort was made to disentangle the unique influence of different social and physical triggers of attentional misdirection on observers' overt and covert attention.

Intentional faking of the single category Implicit Association Test and the Implicit Association Test.

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) provides a relative measure of implicit association strengths between target and attribute categories. In contrast, the Single Category Implicit Association Test (SC-IAT) measures association strength with a single attribute category. This can be advantageous if a complementary category--as used in the IAT--cannot be composed or is undesired.

The paddle move commonly used in magic tricks as a means for analysing the perceptual limits of combined motion trajectories.

Following Gustav Kuhn's inspiring technique of using magicians' acts as a source of insight into cognitive sciences, we used the 'paddle move' for testing the psychophysics of combined movement trajectories. The paddle move is a standard technique in magic consisting of a combined rotating and tilting movement. Careful control of the mutual speed parameters of the two movements makes it possible to inhibit the perception of the rotation, letting the 'magic' effect emerge--a sudden change of the tilted object.

Scores for schizotypy and five-factor model of a sample of distant healers: a preliminary study.

A preliminary study was conducted to evaluate the personality scores of 18 distant healers on the NEO-Five Factor Inventory and the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief. These distant healers differed significantly in their schizotypic tendencies, both in comparison to normed scores and to a control group of 19 masseurs. Further differences were found on scales of Conscientiousness and Openness to experience.

Dimensionality and construct validity of a video-based, objective personality test for the assessment of willingness to take risks in road traffic.

The study at hand reports first results about the dimensionality and construct validity of a newly developed objective, video-based personality test, which assesses the willingness to take risks in traffic situations. On the basis of the theory of risk homeostasis developed by Wilde, different traffic situations with varying amounts of objective danger were filmed. These situations mainly consisted of situations with passing maneuvers and speed choice or traffic situations at intersections.

Paranormal belief, schizotypy, and Body Mass Index.

There are indications that subjects with schizotypal personality have a lower Body Mass Index. Also schizotypal personality is linked to a higher incidence of paranormal belief. In this study we examined whether low Body Mass Index is also linked to paranormal belief.